The First 50...Part 2!

Well, what do you know? This is my 50th blog post! If you read my first post ever, you would likely think along the same lines as I - that this day would never come! Today's post's title comes from a previous post by a similar title written after my first 50 days of college, down at SUU. My oh my how things have changed since then! Life moves fast I suppose.

As many of you already know, or can clearly glean from the fact that i'm writing this post, I am home from my mission. I got back about 3 weeks ago. I have thought about writing this post a couple of different times since then, but today I decided to just sit down and do it. I'm home on a medical release, and I don't have many hard, set in stone details or plans to be able to share right now. But the one thing I can and will say is that I have received witness after witness that being home to be able to take care of things is exactly where I need to be and what I need to be doing. My heart aches for the mission. I miss the people, the language, the schedule, my companions, the badge, the chance to share my testimony so freely and so openly every day, etc... But above all, I know that this is where I need to be right now. It's not easy. It's not fun. But it is what's right for me.

So, the trip home from Asuncion, Paraguay to Logan, UT was quite long. We were awake for about 46 hours by the time my head hit the pillow the next day. Thankfully, I had a wonderful travel companion who helped the incredibly long flights and layovers pass quickly. Hermana Goimarac and I had a fun time trying to remember how to speak full english, especially when trying to share the gospel. I always thought that when missionaries would come home and give their homecoming talks and couldn't think of a word in English, that they were just faking it for dramatic effect. But, no! It's a real thing haha. Anyways, on one of the flights, I shared with Hna Goimarac some lyrics to a song that I had sort of rewritten, and she encouraged me to post them when I got home. So today, I decided to make this video and share the song. I hope you all enjoy it and can feel the Savior's love for each one of you. I'll probably post more about the mission later, but for now, here's the song!

I'd hoped they'd call me on a mission

When I had grown a foot or two

I tried my hardest to be ready

To teach and preach and work as missionaries do

I'm glad they called me on a mission

So I could learn a thing or two

My faith has grown more firm and steady

As I cried and sweat and laughed as missionaries do

I'm glad they called me on a mission

Al hablar la idioma español

Through entertaining language study

Aprendí a reirme en vez de querer llorar

I'm glad they called me on a mission

To let the Savior know me through and through

He's led me by the hand so gently

To comfort, lift, and heal as only He can do

This life is kind of like a mission

Though it takes more than a year or two

Through Christ I know we can be ready

To stand before the judgement seat with hope renewed

"It's great to have the Gospel. It's even better to live it."

Y no temerè

A line from one of my favorite hymns, The Lord Is My Light, in spanish :)

Well. It sure has been a while eh? Sometimes that happens when you finish school for the next 2 or so years, move 300+ miles, start training for a new job, get called to be a primary teacher for the 5-6 year olds, etc... Oh, and RECEIVE YOUR MISSION CALL!!! (Which in turn creates more things that leave less time for blogging. ie: going through and returning to the temple, taking mission prep after work, reading the Book of Mormon in your mission language, getting 8 bazillion immunizations, applying for visas/getting FBI clearance, and so on and so forth)


Where am I going, you may ask? Well, there are a few options on how to find out.



1-Have had any contact with me whatsoever the past 54 days



2-Watch this video

3-Scroll down

My call came to my parent's house in Logan while I was still at school in Cedar City. So I met up with my family and a few friends at Temple Square. Not wanting to drive all the way back to Cedar that same night, I and my good friend Alyssa stayed at her parent's house in Orem. Her fantastic mom had this cute little sign made up and hanging by the time we got there from SLC!

Oh! And if you selected option #2 (watched the video), you'll notice that at one point my mom says "You're going to My Argentina!" When my mom was in her early teens, her dad was a mission president in Cordoba, Argentina. Thus, my mom lived there for a few years. It wasn't until a few minutes later when I opened my call booklet and noticed that both my mission president and his wife had served their individual missions in Cordoba, Argentina. Coincidence? I think not! But wait, it gets better :) I show my mom their picture, and she recognizes my mission president's wife! Long story short, my grandpa was my mission president's mission president! As well as my mission president's wife! AKA my mom knows my mission president and his wife. You just can't make this stuff up. CIT!

Anyways, let me go ahead and just type out the conversation i've had with everybody the past month and a half, for convenience. 

                                                                                                                               

-I heard you got your call! What mission are you going to?

Paraguay Asuncion North

-Cool! Um...Where is Paraguay?

It's in South America. It's kind of in a Brazil and Argentina sandwich

-Wow! Is that Spanish speaking?

I'll be learning Spanish in the MTC, but they also have an indigenous language called Guarani. I've been told by a few folks that i'll likely learn a few phrases in Guarani, but it won't be the main conversational language. 

-How exciting! Don't you already know Spanish?

Um, more or less. I could probably hold a broken conversation in Spanish if I had to, but i'm by no means fluent. And even then, most of my experience is in Mexican Spanish, and each country's Spanish can vary SOOOO much. 

-Gotcha. Well, when do you leave? 

I report to the Argentina MTC on April 25

-They have an MTC in Argentina!?

Apparently! I didn't know that either. But yes, i'll be in Buenos Aires for 6 weeks (which is awesome because the MTC and the Buenos Aires Temple are on the same grounds!)

-Awesome! Well, are you excited? Nervous? Scared?

Yes. All of the above. Haha, i'm really not all that scared per se, but that's probably because that still feels like it's forever away. For now, i'm just reading Preach My Gospel, reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish, taking Mission Prep at the USU Institute, and taking each day as it comes. 

                                                                                                                                

There is so much that could be said about the last few months. Lessons I never knew I needed to learn, people I never knew I needed to meet, experiences I never knew I needed to have. It's all kind of one big jumbled mess in my mind right now, but perhaps as I sort them out more and more, i'll post about them. For now, the one thing I can say to describe it all comes from 2 Ne 9:10, and that is...

O how great the goodness of our God